


take me back to avalon

by Golbez



Series: a past and future secret [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Childhood, Friendship, Gen, Magic Meta, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Sans, POV Second Person, Pre-Underground, Trauma, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-28 18:26:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5101091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golbez/pseuds/Golbez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the humans attack, you grab your brother and run. When the humans attack again, your uncle sends you into the future.</p><p>In which Sans is a child in the pre-Underground era.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'M WRITING MORE FOR THIS VERSE SO I GUESS GASTER SENDING SKELEKIDS INTO THE FUTURE-VERSE IS A THING NOW.
> 
> Anyway, I was gonna write like. A bunch of stuff about pre-Underground monster society BUT THEN SANS TOOK OVER? And Muffet. Muffet also took over. I didn't. See this coming...?
> 
> Title is a modified lyric from the Blind Guardian song, _A Past and Future Secret_.

You are playing with your friends, chasing leaves around the schoolyard, when the great bells begin to sound.

You've only heard them once before, when you were still a stack of baby bones just learning to walk. You were clinging to your mother's leg when the bells rang, startling you and making you cry. She'd scooped you up and started running. You spent about a week living in the Center after that. It had been dark and cramped and stuffy, and you'd only learned afterward that the sea had risen off its bed and consumed half the city. You remember this clearly because you had nightmares about it for years.

And the bells are ringing again now, their heavy tolls rolling out over the city from the Center. You, like your friends, stop what you're doing and turn towards the great tower, taller than any building in the city. A wave of silence follows each toll, and somehow, you just know, something's incredibly, incredibly wrong.

Your gut feeling is confirmed not a moment later, when you hear the horns.

Those too, you've heard only once in your life. In the week after your brother was born a bunch of Wildsmen had arrived. Their king and their queen, your parents had told you, as they paraded past your window on their way to the Center. The Wildsmen rode on giant beasts you'd never seen before, and they'd brought with them giant horns that made fantastic sounds.

Those same sounds that now suddenly make you afraid.

And it must be the same for everyone else, because suddenly, chaos breaks out. The street past the schoolyard is suddenly full of people running this way and that. Your teacher appears at the door and hurries out and starts calling for everyone to line up, _this way children, stay calm, we're going to the Center._

And you think about your brother.

You start to run, and you hear your teacher and your friends shouting "Sans, _come back!_ " but you keep going, past the panicking grown ups and down the street, past the girls' school, past the store run by that one funny human, past the - past the -

You skid to a halt.

You're standing outside your brother's preschool, half a city away from your school. Did you run here? That doesn't seem right. You look around you to find more grown ups running around panicking, and there's that statue of the King. You're definitely outside your brother's preschool.

The horns come again. You waste no time in running up the steps into the preschool, hurrying past the lines of the smallest children being herded out. Rows of kids in stripes gasp when you run past them, their teachers shouting after you.

You burst into the room at the end of the corridor.

"Sans!"

Your brother is right there, toddling toward you with his arms outstretched.

"Hey, lil' bro." You're not much taller than he is but you crouch anyway.

"Up, up!" He hurries right into your arms, and you oblige and pick him up, looping your arms around him. He laughs and holds onto your skull.

His teacher is right in front of you next, a human woman with her hands on her hips, staring down at you. She opens her mouth to say something, but you hear the horns again, so you turn and run back out the way you came.

Papyrus takes the opportunity to announce, "Whee!"

You can't help but grin at the sound, even as you dodge children and adults alike. When you get outside you run some more, and will yourself to do that same trick again that got you to the preschool without your realizing it. You will yourself to just suddenly _move_ and _appear_ -

You kick up dust. A bit of it gets in your mouth, and you start coughing at the bitter taste -

You stop running.

Human bodies and dust cover the ground before you. Red mixed with white. Your grip on Papyrus tightens and you are glad his head is over your shoulder so he can't see what you're seeing. Somehow, a part of you just knows you've come across something horrible.

Something moves in front of you and you realize it's a Wildsman, clad in armor and wielding a sword, taking in the carnage. You step back and your feet kick up more dust and Papyrus coughs.

The Wildsman turns on you, and raises its sword.

And you, fool that you are, scream and yell and run.

Maybe it was your shouts, maybe it was your sudden movement, but the Wildsman freezes, and then the next thing you know, you're running into a wide open plaza with a floor of golden tiles, no dust or bodies in sight, and surrounded by buildings made of brick just as gold as the ground.

In front of you is the princess. Around you are humans and monsters alike running toward her. Behind the princess are the steps leading up to the Center.

She looks to you with surprise. Papyrus wriggles in your grasp, knocking a tiny fist against the side of your head, prompting the princess to quickly recover from her surprise.

"Inside now, children," she croons, and she reaches toward you with hands covered in fur as white as your bones. You realize she's trying to take Papyrus from you, and despite all the etiquette that's been hammered into your skull, you turn away, your arms around your brother tightening some more.

The princess pauses, and wordlessly you start toward the steps behind her, ignoring the monsters and humans around you.

You manage five steps before your arms unravel, and Papyrus falls out of your grip.

You only barely manage to slip your hand under Papyrus's head before his head can hit the stone. When the sharp sound of a crack breaks out, it's the bones in your hand that feel like they've come apart.

You bite back a cry and squeeze your eye sockets shut. Small hands touch your face when you do, and you open one and look down at your little brother, staring up at you in concern.

"Sans okay?" he asks.

"Y-yeah...!" you tell him, and pick yourself back up and hold him close. Your hand hurts and you feel tears welling up and you take a few more steps up and -

You're falling.

You hear Papyrus start crying, then there's the horns and the bells and a weight's lifted off your hands and hands are grabbing at you and

You black out.

***

The first thing you register upon waking is how soft the bed you're lying in feels. The next is that your hand hurts. And then the last is that it's dark.

Where's Papyrus?

You shoot up out of bed, scrambling to tear the blanket on you off, ignoring how oddly sticky your left hand feels -

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, dearie."

You look up and find five glowing eyes staring right at you, and you're quick to scramble back onto the bed.

"Much better."

You feel a hand pat you on the head, while more replace the blanket on you. You open your mouth to ask about Papyrus, only for a light to come on at that moment. It's still fairly dim, but now you can see that the monster standing at your bedside has five eyes and six arms. She's dressed in white garb, the purple skin of her face framed with black hair.

She notices your staring, and smiles down at you. "Never seen a spider before, dearie?"

You nod and close your mouth politely. She laughs and, seemingly satisfied, turns away.

"Charlotte, the web's coming off," you hear someone say, though you can't quite tell from where. You see the spider sigh and hear her mumble, "It won't come off if you don't fidget," before scurrying away as the complaint comes again.

You realize there are many beds around you, all occupied by monsters of various kinds. This has to be a clinic, with the way the spider is going from bed to bed to...

Five eyes stare at you. You pause and stare back. A miniature version of the spider is standing where she had previously. This smaller one is maybe about your age, you realize.

"I saw the princess carry you in herself," she tells you matter-of-factly.

You aren't sure how to take this. "What about my brother?" you ask.

"I saw the princess carry you _both_ in herself," she corrects, a rather smug smile on her face. Then, she points at your hand, prompting you to glance down at it and back to her. "I webbed your hand all by myself."

This time you look at your hand more closely, and notice now the strange, string like substance wrapped around it. It's sticky and a little unpleasant against your bones, but your hand certainly feels better than before.

"Um...thank you," you tell her. You want to ask about Papyrus again, but then she seems to just puff up, looking infinitely pleased with herself, and continues speaking.

"Mama did the healing magic though," she admits, but then she still looks amazingly proud of herself. "Oh, forgot my manners! I'm Muffet."

"I'm Sans," you reply automatically, then before she can go off and talk about her magic some more, you quickly ask, "Where's my brother?"

Three of her eyes close, and then they're open again and she tells you, tone a little less eager than before, "The princess took him."

"Okay," you say, "Where's the princess?"

She shrugs, all six of her arms rising and falling with the motion. "I dunno."

You glance at where the older spider, who is presumably Muffet's mama, is tending to some other monsters. You could make a break for it, you think, if you're quick enough. Maybe the little trick you'd discovered earlier would kick in and bring you straight to Papyrus.

You move your uninjured hand to touch the blanket. A purple hand comes down on it.

"No," hisses Muffet, and all five of her eyes are open, glaring right into your eye sockets. She's baring her teeth at you, little fangs visible. "You're my patient, mama said so. You have to stay here until you make a full recovery."

You stare at her for a long moment, and you really think about trying it. You really think about shoving her aside and running away to go look for Papyrus, wherever he is right now. But Muffet seems to know what you're thinking, as she next moves her hand away and spreads all her arms out.

"I'll web you to the bed if I have to," she tells you.

You shudder at the thought of that string covering you, and settle back in. Muffet smiles and lowers her arms, then draws up a chair from somewhere and sits down.

"I just wanna see my brother," you say.

She does this little thing with her mouth that hides her fangs, jutting out her lower lip. "If he's with the princess, you shouldn't bother her."

"Why not?"

"Because mama says the princess is busy."

"That doesn't have anything to do with my brother," you say, and again the temptation to run is there, and you will yourself to just move, but your trick doesn't happen, and you don't just suddenly move to a different place.

"I wanna see my papa too, but since he's busy I never bother him."

Her words give you pause. Muffet is looking at you with a serious expression, and she almost looks like a grown up that way.

You look away. You guess you can stay here for now. The princess probably has...princess things to do. You take a moment to look around now, and guessing by what you can see of the walls, with their bright gold glittering in what little light there is, it looks like you're inside the Center itself.

Muffet once again seems to know what you're thinking, and a wide smile breaks out on her face. She clasps your uninjured hand suddenly with two pairs of hands. "Want to see something cool?"

Well, maybe it'd take your mind off where you are right now, and how you don't know where Papyrus is. "Okay."

She leans back a little on the chair, withdrawing her hands as well and grinning widely. Then, she starts to rub her hands together.

You feel magic emanating from her, like when your parents would make bones appear out of nowhere and make Papyrus giggle. Sure enough when Muffet's hands part there's a web there, running across four of her hands. You find yourself fascinated by the pattern it has stretched out like this and not all bunched up and coiled around your hand.

She giggles, and her middle pair of hands suddenly set to work on the web, snipping some of the string and rearranging it. The sight takes your mind off your situation completely as you watch her hands work.

"All done!" she suddenly says, and you draw back, realizing that you'd leaned in a lot to stare. When you sit back, you realize that her rearrangement of the pattern hadn't been random at all. There, staring back at you from the web in Muffet's hands, is your name.

Well, not quite. The N is flipped the wrong way.

"Oh, I messed up," she says, voice soft.

"I think it's great," you tell her, because you really do think it is. You'd never thought about using magic to spell things out before. Maybe you could learn to spell something with bones.

"But it was supposed to be cool," she says.

"It _is_ cool," you say, "You shouldn't let it bug you too much."

And then she starts to giggle, her hands shaking so much that the web comes apart and lands on her lap. You stare at her in confusion the entire time, trying to figure out what was so funny about what you said.

"Ahuhu, you said bug!" Despite still giggling to herself the entire time, Muffet gathers up the tattered web on her lap and rolls it all up before putting it away somewhere in her white dress.

"Um," you say, "What's so funny?"

She calms down eventually, taking a moment to wipe a tear from each of her eyes. She flashes you the widest smile you've seen so far on her face. "Spiders eat bugs."

"Oh." You considered yourself something of a joker, but you hadn't really been trying that time and you're still not sure what was so funny about it. Even so, the sound of her laughter remains clear in your mind, and you think that maybe you'd like to hear that again.

"Enjoying chatting with your patient?" says a voice behind you so suddenly that you almost jump off the bed. You turn and look up to find the larger spider back.

Muffet's expression changes into one a lot less cheerful. "Yes, mama," she says, before standing and pushing the chair under the bed.

"Go attend to the patients by the door," says her mother, and Muffet nods quickly. She glances at you again, then scurries off. You look up at her mother, smiling down at you.

"I heard most of your conversation," she says, and you wonder if she found your saying 'bug' funny too. Her eyes each blink once. "Your brother is safe, I can assure you that."

You nod, realizing that Muffet really had distracted you. You glance towards the golden walls, near the door where it's brighter. You can see Muffet moving around in that area, and you consider once again running.

"And," continues her mother before you can do anything, "Princess Ambriel has asked for you."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Muffet unsurprisingly takes over again. This is the last time she'll be doing that in this fic...probably...?
> 
> Also keep in mind that since this fic is from Sans' POV, we won't get to explore certain aspects of the setting. Maybe in future fics ;D

Papyrus comes running to you the moment you step into the silver-walled room, yelling "Sans, Sans!" as if that's the only word he's ever learned to say. He jumps into your arms, and all you can see for a moment are the stripes of his shirt as he wraps himself around your face. Laughter rings out around you, even as you reach up to tug at Papyrus. He comes free of your head and lands in your arms, chattering a little too quickly that all you pick up are your name and the word 'princess'.

You hug your little brother for a moment, then set him down on his feet. He teeters, small hands gripping yours before he steadies himself. It's only when you're satisfied that he isn't going to fall that you look up at the rest of the room.

A number of adults all look back at you, most of them wearing tired smiles together with their golden or white robes. The only one you recognize is the princess, coming toward you in the direction Papyrus had run from.

You bow, like you'd been taught. You hear the princess laugh very softly, and her furred hand comes into view as she very gently touches your chin and tilts your head up so you're looking her in the eyes. Satisfied that your gaze is meeting hers, she starts to withdraw her hand, only for Papyrus to intercept and grab onto it.

"You must be Sans," she says, letting your brother explore her hand. She glances at him with a fond smile, before looking you directly in the eye sockets again. "You were very brave, rescuing your brother like that all on your own."

Warmth blossoms in you from the praise, and you find yourself looking down at Papyrus instead of the princess. Your brother is gnawing on one of her fingers, apparently confused by the texture of fur compared to the smoothness of skeleton fingers. His teeth are thankfully too small and too blunt to do any damage. When nothing happens from that, Papyrus reaches out to tug at the floppy ear hanging by her head. You figure the sight kind of ruins the moment, but the princess is still smiling at you so neither of you are in trouble.

"Thank you," you tell her as you remember your manners.

"Now then," she says, and her tone feels more serious, so you stand a little straighter. "I would love to spend some time playing with you both, but there are important things I need to do."

You nod, recalling your conversation with Muffet. The princess has princess things to do, so you step a little closer and reach over to Papyrus, gently prying him off her. He wiggles about in your grip, clearly wanting to play with her some more, but seeing how he doesn't try very hard to hold onto her you think he might have picked up on the seriousness of her tone. You pause, looking at Papyrus in your arms, then you look back to her.

"What about our parents?" you blurt out just as she straightens herself. Now that she isn't crouching, you have to tilt your head up to meet her gaze. Papyrus starts patting your head again, repeatedly.

"We are looking for them, don't worry," she tells you, then she gestures at someone behind you. Upon turning, you find there a human woman almost as tall as the princess approaching the three of you.

"Your Highness."

"Matron, take these children to the Nursery, would you?"

You're about to comment that you're too old for nurseries, when Papyrus sticks his hand in your mouth. You splutter as you tug on Papyrus and get him to stop that. He giggles at your irritation, and when you recover you catch only the tail end of the two adults' conversation.

" - understand," the Matron is saying, and you notice her hands curling into fists over her dark blue dress, "We will do everything in our power."

You realize the princess's expression is stern, but upon hearing that response to whatever she had said, a smile overtakes her features again. Apparently satisfied with this, she looks down at you.

"The Matron will take care of you and your brother for now, Sans," she says.

You look between the princess and the human woman, and hold onto Papyrus tight. Even with the rest you'd had in the clinic, an odd tiredness is creeping over your bones. It makes you want to take Papyrus with you back to the clinic and just lie down again until your parents come for you, but you know that Papyrus would never stand for that. His energy would just make him jump out of the bed and wreak havoc in the clinic instead.

It's that same tiredness however that makes you just nod and step toward the Matron. You don't feel like arguing or running right now.

"Only till your parents come to pick you up," says the Matron, tone kind.

With that matter settled, the princess turns away, and immediately she's surrounded by other monsters and humans, all clad in clerical white and most of them carrying huge bunches of paper. She catches your gaze and gives you one final smile and a small wave, before being swept away in a flurry of voices and activity.

The Matron doesn't even wait for the princess to disappear out the door before bending to pick up Papyrus. Despite his hands being outstretched toward the princess just a moment ago, Papyrus is quick to adjust to this new presence carrying him. You glare up at her when she gently presses a finger to Papyrus's forehead, making him giggle.

She looks back down at you, expression warmer now that it's just the three of you. "I'm not trying to steal him," she says, "Your hand might've been magically healed but you shouldn't be doing too much with it just yet."

You pause, and glance down at your hand that had just a while ago been wrapped in sticky webbing. It doesn't hurt at all anymore, but with the sheer amount of healing magic Muffet's mother had used on it to make you 'more presentable', that's probably to be expected.

"How'd you know about that?" you ask.

"Lottie told me," comes the reply, as if that should have been obvious. When you don't say anything further, the Matron reaches down and takes your hand. Then she's leading you back into the corridor you'd used to get to this room. "Come along now."

You follow because she has your brother, giggling and chattering away and waving at you over her shoulder, and not at all because the tiredness has lodged itself into your ribs.

***

The Nursery, as it turns out, is really just a place for children who'd been separated from their parents. Past the entrance you can see kids younger than you playing with each other. Sitting at a desk by said entrance is a monster lady with brown fur and short pointed ears. She has on the most bored expression you've ever seen an adult wear, one that she quickly erases when the Matron approaches with you and Papyrus. 

"Not much to report, ma'am." The monster lady sits up and smooths out her white uniform, gaze flickering between you and Papyrus and her boss. "Twenty-six more kids checked out and happily reunited with their parents, five picked up by relatives, and three scraped knees that Charlotte's assistant is attending to right now. She should be done with them by...oh dear."

As if on cue, the sound of several kids crying starts up behind from past the entrance. You hold on tight to the Matron's hand and lean to the side to peer into the room, trying to catch sight of the chaos that seems to have begun. You spot two adult humans and a jelly monster hurry by before a familiar five-eyed face suddenly drops down into your vision.

You jump back with a shout of surprise.

"Oopsie!" Muffet is quick to lower herself to the ground, righting herself and dusting her dress off. The rope of web she'd used to drop down disappears with a wave of one of her hands. "Three scraped knees wrapped and ready to heal."

"I told you not to scare anyone this time," says the Matron, letting go of your hand to set your brother down on the desk. Papyrus immediately turns and crawls over to the monster lady.

"I just warned them to be more careful," protests Muffet, "or else the spiders would eat them. Oh, hi Sans."

The last one is directed at you, of course, and accompanied by a wave. You return the wave and greet her back with a "Hi Muffet", which earns you a giggle and a blink from all five eyes.

"Back to your mother with you now," says the Matron, making a small shooing motion. Muffet's blinks at you again, then she's starts to move past you.

"You look like you need some sleep," she whispers as she passes you, then she's striding off behind you before you can react.

"That girl," sighs the Matron once Muffet is out of sight. She turns back to the desk, where Papyrus and the monster lady are playing some kind of clapping game with each other. It takes a moment of the Matron's glaring with her arms akimbo before the monster lady notices and stops. The lull in attention is enough for Papyrus to start looking around for something else to do.

"Y-yes, Matron?" The monster lady laughs nervously, apparently embarrassed with being caught playing while working. You circle around the desk to her side and tap Papyrus's leg, prompting him to look up and then jump into your arms again.

"Have any adult skeletons come by?"

You look up at the Matron, then at the monster lady, whose nervousness only seems to grow. The latter shakes her head, slowly. "There was one couple earlier but they picked up their kid already so, no, nobody came. Not for these two at...least..."

She trails off, and you feel them both look at you and your brother. Neither of your parents had come to search for you, and you're certain that it's just because...well, maybe they were just getting whatever place had been assigned to them ready for you and Papyrus, or maybe they were being held up at a line somewhere, maybe they'd gotten stuck in a corridor with a slow moving blob monster in front of them, maybe -

The Wildsman you'd encountered fills your vision, and you remember now that its armor hadn't just been completely dark, there'd been streaks and smears of white, as white as your bone, as white as the scattered -

Something must have shown on your face, because the Matron is very quickly crouched at your side, soothingly patting your back. Papyrus wraps his arms around you, like maybe he understands what's happening more than you think he does.

You don't say anything. No one says anything for a while.

***

You think, that if you were human right now, you'd be wrinkling your nose. As it is, you're glad you don't have a nose at all. That, and your mother once taught you how to dull your senses with magic, so when you drop off the soiled cloth in the assigned basket, all you do is wince from the ugly squelch it makes. The fuzzy monster baby laying before you coos. Muffet, no more bothered by the smell than the baby is, helpfully supplies you with a fresh cloth that you quickly wrap the kid up in. 

Well, someone has to do this right? And seeing how you have little else to do and plenty of practice with Papyrus, the Matron allowed you to help out around the Nursery. It helps that you dislike being idle, since in the past two days the few times you allowed yourself to do nothing for even a little bit had been plagued by imaginary Wildsmen and your parents turning to dust before your eyes. Helping out also means you don't have to think about how every few hours there'd be less and less kids around as more and more parents come by to pick them up, and how you wouldn't be one of those kids for a long, long time.

You scoop the baby up when you're done, then hand him off to Muffet, who promptly hands him off to one of the jelly monsters who worked there. Or rather, she simply sets the baby on top of its head. You both watch as it slides out of the room with the baby laughing every time the monster bounces a little while moving.

"That was the last one," announces Muffet, even as you take a moment to drop by the sink in the corner of the room. You can hear the impatience in her tone, so you take your time washing your hands until she reaches over and turns the faucet off for you. "Come oooon, my break's going to be over soon!"

"You need longer breaks," you tell her as you wipe your hand off on your shorts and undo the magic blocking your sense of smell. She doesn't bother replying, simply zipping away out of the room. You hurry after her, past the room where the jelly monsters are attending to babies of all kinds, past the large bed room where only a few kids are hanging out now, past the play room where you run past the Matron scolding a rather large group. You manage to glimpse Papyrus playing with some humans his age as you follow Muffet out the entrance. He's one of the only monster kids allowed to play with them, seeing how he hasn't learned to do anything dangerous with his magic yet.

Muffet leads you on to the corridor, then further along past doors you know aren't allowed to explore. You pass adults both human and monster along the way, each one looking incredibly busy.

Then you're ducking into a much smaller corridor you hadn't noticed on your first trip through here with the Matron. It's a dead end.

"Are you sure we're allowed here - " you start to ask, glancing around, but when you turn back to her, Muffet is scrambling up the wall and onto a very well hidden ledge. For a moment she disappears from sight, then her head pokes out from over the ledge and she's tossing a rope made of web down at you. It's easy enough to scale the wall with it, and soon you're joining her in an odd little nook between the ceiling and the wall, just wide enough for you both to sit on without being visible from the floor. A glance over the other side of the wall reveals a dead end much like the one you'd climbed up from.

"I come here all the time," Muffet tells you, and then she's taking out a bundle of things from somewhere and spreading out a large piece of cloth and several cupcakes. She's quick to offer you one before picking her own.

You bite into the cupcake, and it's the sweetest thing you've had in a while and really, it's a welcome thing after having only had bland food since coming to the Center. There's something crunchy in it that you can't identify, but you catch Muffet watching you with three of her eyes and you decide you don't really mind it at all.

You're about to start on a second one when something about Muffet's words strike you as odd. "Wait, Muffet, _all the time_?"

She doesn't reply, just wolfs down the cupcake in her hand and pours herself a cup of something that looks really hot from a small teapot that couldn't have been anything but a toy. You stare at her for a moment, piecing the clues together. Her mother works here in the Center, which is only ever full of people and kids like you and Muffet whenever the bells of the tower ring, and she seems to be on good terms with all the staff, and she knows her way around as if she'd been here for years.

"Muffet, do you live here? Inside the Center?" you ask. She takes a very long sip from her cup, and you kind of wish you hadn't asked.

"Yes," she says, and she doesn't offer up any more than that.

"Do you ever go outside?" you press on. You'd never considered that anyone would be living here.

"A few times." Muffet lowers her cup quickly, and picks up another cupcake. She hesitates, then closes all her eyes. "The city changes too quickly. The last time I was outside half of it was like the sea! Then when I went out again it was all back to being dry."

Half of the city was like the sea? Is she talking about the first time you'd encountered the bells? You stare at her for a moment, trying to work this out. She looks your age so she can't be too much older, and you only barely remember that time but she obviously remembers it clearly.

"How old are you?" you ask.

All her eyes snap open. She tilts her head at you, and you're wondering if you'd asked a little too much when she laughs, softly. "Ahuhuhu, mama said asking for a lady's age is rude."

You look away, and you're about to apologize when she speaks again.

"I'm eight," she says. So she really is only around your age, and you look up at her and open your mouth to say something like that, only for her to reach over and shut your jaw with a hand. "...hundred."

You stare. You don't really mean to. She huffs and reaches for her cup, and you notice her hand shaking as it snakes down to grip the handle. You wonder how often she gets to play with kids like you if she's in here all the time, if all her playmates have only been the staff and the occasional children who are only here after the bells ring.

You wonder how much she's seen of the world, at that age. Sure, she's just a kid like you, but you're fairly certain that even if you were a kid at eight hundred you would have seen your fair share of things by then. You wonder if she was there when the first king laid down the first stone for the city, if she ever got to meet any of the heroes from your favorite stories.

"I don't need your pity," she says, quietly.

"I think it's awesome," you tell her, and she looks at you with surprise. "It means you know more about everything than me, and you're stronger with magic, and you've probably seen a lot of cool things."

She pauses, and then a thoughtful look comes over her face. "Meeting the King and watching the humans learn was quite cool, I guess."

You grin, glad to see that she isn't angry with you or anywhere near sad looking. She's quiet for a long moment. You fill the silence with the sound of your eating, your crunches ringing out in the dim light.

"You figured out my secret," she says suddenly. "Now you have to tell me a secret too!"

"Oh, uh," you say, not sure what to tell her. You get the feeling she won't be satisfied with something like taking more candies from the candy bowl than you were supposed to in school. She watches you expectantly, blinking her eyes prettily. Then it hits you, what you can tell her that might match up in gravity with her secret. "I can magic."

She pouts at you and throws a ball of web at you that disappears once it bounces off your forehead. "Everyone can magic."

"Not like me," you say, and she eyes you quizzically. "I can teleport!"

Each of her eyes blink once, then again, and then all at once. "You're lying."

"Am not," you say. The accusation hurts a little more than you think it should, but you guess you should have expected it. When you'd had time to think about your little trick while running with Papyrus, you had realized that it has to be teleporting, something you know is only heard about in stories. You haven't really been able to do it again though, not since you woke up in the clinic and that strange tiredness simply took over you. You aren't feeling that way right now, thankfully.

"Show me," says Muffet, and you hold onto your cupcake a little more tightly and start willing yourself to move somewhere else through your magic. Like down to the bottom of the wall, maybe.

Nothing happens. Muffet's expectant look falters. You kind of regret telling her about this.

"I was...sort of in danger when it happened," you tell her, and when she perks up a little you start explaining to her what happened during the attack, how you'd just suddenly jumped to Papyrus's preschool and grabbed him and -

Muffet stops you suddenly. "Wait, you saved Papyrus from a preschool?"

"...yeah," you say, not sure why that would bother her. Her eyes all close.

"Sans, you..." She cuts herself off and shakes her head, eyes reopening all at once to look at you. A smile creeps onto her face. "No, it's nothing. Go on."

Now she's the one lying, you think. Whatever that interruption had been about surely could not have been just nothing, but you're a little eager to continue, so instead you just recount how you went from the preschool to the plaza without having to travel the whole distance. You pass on mentioning the Wildsman you'd met.

As you speak, Muffet watches you, and you in turn watch her. The small changes in her expression almost distract you, but you manage to keep talking about the right thing instead of blurting out something about her face. You finish with how you'd woken up, and you aren't sure why you do, but you mention the tiredness as well. It seems relevant, and right after you mention it she gives you a thoughtful look.

"It sounds like you might have used up your magic," she says once you're done.

"Used up...my magic?" You stare at her, trying to wrap your mind around the idea of _using up your magic_. "That's not fair, I haven't even learned how to teleport when I want to!"

"Ahuhuhu, Sans!" She giggles, and you figure that's a little ruder than usual for her because here you are kind of panicking about your magic and she's laughing. "Have you tried using _any_ magic at all since you woke up?"

You pause. Come to think of it, aside from the occasional attempt to teleport and blocking your sense of smell, no, you haven't used any magic at all in the past two days. You'd even forgotten that you were going to try and make some bones for Papyrus to play with.

"...no," you admit.

"Well, there you go," she says, and she sips from her cup here, before biting out of one of the cupcakes in her hands. She holds her head higher, and you think to yourself that it's the return of the smug Muffet you'd first met. "Since we're kids we need more magic to do the bigger things with it. That's why I'm not allowed to do all the healing stuff yet. I'd burn out too quickly, and that'd be no good for my patients. You should rest a lot if you want to teleport again."

You think on it, how the tiredness hadn't been like any you'd felt before, how it had seemed like something deep inside you. Maybe Muffet's right. Maybe you do just need a lot of rest. A lot more.

You aren't looking forward to the Wildsman taunting you in your own head though.

But you're glad she believes you -

"My break!" shouts Muffet suddenly, shooting up onto her feet. The sudden motion startles you, sends you falling back onto your rear, but you're quick to recover and you sit there, looking up at Muffet. "My break's over!"

"Told you you need longer breaks," you say, earning you an annoyed look.

Despite your teasing, you hurry to help her, finishing off the last two cupcakes for her while she packs up the cloth and her cup and tiny teapot. When you're both ready she lowers you down to the floor with a rope of web and she follows after you. Then you race back to the Nursery, and you realize, as you weave in and out of the passing, ever busy crowd, that you wouldn't mind coming to live and work here in the Center if your parents never come to find you.

Muffet would have someone to play with, and Papyrus would love the endless halls. You could have snacks like this with Muffet whenever you both take breaks, and that would be really quite nice.

If nobody comes for you - if your parents are dust -

You stare at the back of Muffet's head as you run, and you're so distracted by your thoughts that you almost bowl her over when she suddenly stops in her tracks.

You skid to a halt right behind her. "Muffet, don't just stop in the middle of - "

She doesn't turn to you, instead, one of her hands grabs you and pulls you forward, then she points ahead with another.

You're outside the Nursery, a slight distance away, and standing at the entrance is the Matron. She's carrying Papyrus and, standing before them, back turned to you, is an adult skeleton.

Muffet's grip tightens on you. You shake her off, and break into a run for the rest of the way. You don't hear Muffet come after you.

"Dad," manages to slip from your mouth as you approach, but you realize, too late, that it isn't your father. This skeleton is too tall, shoulders too broad, and he's dressed in a gray your father would never have agreed to wear.

The skeleton turns, and you've never wished so hard before that you were wrong about something, because that definitely isn't your father.

You stop before him. The Matron is smiling, and Papyrus is of course happy to see you again, but you find yourself looking up at this skeleton you've never seen before in your life. He looks down at you, raises a hand, and starts to gesture into the air. To your surprise, a voice speaks out with each gesture.

"Hello, Sans," is what he says first, then, he adds, "I'm sorry I took so long to come get you."

"Who are you?" you ask, and maybe your tone is a little sharper than it should be. He winces, then signs some more.

"I am not surprised you would not remember me."

"Who are you?" you repeat, staring directly into his eye sockets.

"I am your uncle," he signs, and it might just be your imagination but you think he kind of deflates a little. "You may call me Gaster."

"Where's mom and dad?" you demand, and there's that wince again, so you repeat the question, your tone growing harsher for it. Gaster makes no motion to sign.

"Sans, don't speak that way," chides the Matron, but you don't care anymore because you need an answer to your question, and anything short of it is not worth your attention right now. The moment stretches on, and when he finally answers, his hands are shaking, and somehow that makes his voice unsteady as well.

"They...they fell to d-dust in the attack," he says, "I'm sorry, I-I'm truly - "

You want to scream. You want to turn around and march over to Muffet and walk away. You want to shout in his face. You want to be anywhere but here, and use up all your magic and let that tiredness take every piece of you.

You want to be angry, why can't you be angry -

The Wildsman slashes and you watch as your father and mother fade into dust -

You don't do any of the many things you want to do. Instead, you stand stock still, and let Gaster kneel and pull you into a hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gg Sans, Gaster had a speech prepared!
> 
> A small heads up, but I won't be posting/updating regularly for a while ~~trust me I was the most surprised when I posted one fic a day last week~~ I pulled a Sans on my responsibilities and unfortunately I'm going to have a bad time if I don't get off my butt and get those done. If for some reason I absolutely need to be contacted beyond the reviews section of AO3, you can hit me up on [my tumblr](http://golbez.tumblr.com).


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